After a sluggish start in the second game of the state playoffs at the Tacoma Dome on Thursday morning, the Lake Washington boys basketball fought back in the second half. Their best efforts on the court were dogged by University High School of Spokane, who won 60-55.

The Kangs will face Mountlake Terrace in the consolation round on Friday, March 2 at 9 a.m. The winner will advance, while the loser will be finished for the season.

Against the Titans, Lake Washington was down 16-13 at the end of the first quarter, having finding a way to effectively slow University’s fast paced offense. The Kangs appeared to wake up a little more in the second quarter, with both teams hitting 15 points, to trail 31-28 at half time.

Lake Washington came back from the locker room and quickly stepped up their game, hitting 18 points in the third quarter, holding the Titans to just 10. The score was 46-41 for the Kangs at the end of the third quarter.

The Kangs appeared to be in control of their destiny through the first half of the fourth quarter, but earlier fouls started to add up and both Guy Lynott and Cody Bernstein had already hit four fouls. Lynott fouled out with 6:18 left to play, and moments later on a rebound Darien Nelson-Henry went crashing to the floor, clutching his right ankle. He came off the court, with Lake Washington leading 48-46. Nelson-Henry would later return, but hurting with a taped ankle. Two free throws from Matt Staudacher stretched the lead to 50-46 for the Kangs, but University wasn’t done. The Titans ate away the Kangs small lead and took the lead with 2:45 left on the clock.

Missed chances in the waning seconds of the game allowed University to build space on the score board, to win the game.

Staudacher was responsible for 30 points during the game, with eight from Nelson-Henry, six from Jeffery Stuadacher, Five from Kelly Guy, four from Cody Bernstein and two from Guy Lynott.

The Titans out rebounded the Kangs across the board, 31-25 during the game, but the Kangs hit 65 percent of free throws, while the Titans hit just 53.3 percent from the line.

Mountlake Terrace lost it’s first round game to Rainier Beach on Thursday morning. The Hawks lost to Beach 67-51 in the quarterfinals, and are 23-2 this season.